ketostix said:
The brewing process creates several byproducts. It depends on the yeast strain, the ingredients and the brewing process. Sure beers and liquors are filtered, but that doesn't mean American beers are filtered less.
Not to toot my own horn, but I used to brew beer (which I hated, btw. I didn't get far enough into it)and I did my final speech for speech class in college on the brewing process of beer. I have also tried almost every style of beer known to man, in probably a dozen different states and almost as many countries around the world. So I do have a point of reference in case anyone is wondering.....
Fermentation only produces those two byproducts.
The amount of, say, sugar that remains in the beer is dependent upon the type and amount of malt that is used and the amount of fermentation the yeast is capable of or the brewmaster desires, but it isn't a byproduct of the brewing process, it is part of the main ingredients to begin with.
i've had beers tast different from batch to batch. From various sources, see it's not just about percieved taste but analysis of different properties of the finished product.
Never experienced that myself, and i have a pretty well trained palate.
I wouldn't call dating just a ploy. Freshness matters.
I'm not saying that beer doesn't have a shelf life....most of it does (unless it has a lot of alcohol in which case it generally improves with age much lie wine) but the marketing angle the Bud took is nothing more than a scare tactic. Fact of the matter is that 99+% of all the beer you will ever drink will taste just as good a year from the brew dae as it does the day after.
And the same argument that Bud is creating microbrews is the same reason they made pale lagers in the first place, because that's what people liked. Just because consumers change their taste doesn't mean it's better.
Beer is experiencing a Renaissance much like wine and other foods and beverages. Americans tastes are becoming more refined and our culture is becoming more accepting of "flavor" in general.
Think of the shelves at the grocery store 20 years ago. You had Wonder bread, Wonder bread, and MORE Wonder bread. Now you can tell me till you are blue in the face that Wonder bread tastes better than a hand crafted sourdough at a top notch steak house, but really....there's a matter of actual personal TASTE, and then there is a matter of lack of exposure or closed mindedness or misconceptions about things that are different. That sourdough bread may not appeal to a few people, but the vast majority of people if handed a slice of each and told to eat only one would slather a slab of butter on that sourdough and go to town, leaving the Wonder bread on the ground for the rats and mice.
If you truly like something, by all means keep drinking it. I have just found that most of the time the American beer fans tend to be the ones who are less likely to try new things, can't afford a "premium" priced beverage, or simply don't care to step out of their little world to see if there might be some other stuff out there they might like. Not saying you are one of them, just making a general obsevation.
Another example is sushi. I can't get my family to try it for ANYTHING. "Raw fish? That's DISGUSTING!". Yet you can see that the acceptance of such "exotic" foods has firmly taken root in our culture. 30 years ago the vast majority of Americans wouldn't have dreamed of eating raw fish.
Well my point is I don't think Sam Adams is really any better quality. It causes some people more hang overs. I don't have a problem with American lagers so why would I pay even more for Sam Adams.
You speak of "quality" of beer as if it were some sort of measurable thing, like the quality of a car being measured by reliability.
Is bud light lower quality in that it causes less hangovers? That's debatable.
I couldn't careless about what world opinion is of American Lagers. I don't expect foreigners to be very accepting of anything American.
Actually, the rest of the world is quite accepting of all that is American, but you don't see the amount of importing of American beers that you see of American cars, furniture,etc.
I'm not debating what beer is more flavorable or enjoyable to drink (other than hnagover inducement), I'm saying when people say American style-lagers are crap that's opinion and not fact.
So you are saying that micro-brews and imports TASTE better, but they aren't lower quality? I judge quality of food and beverage by one thing- taste. the same thing that makes Pizza Hut pizza "crap" in my eyes compared to a handmade gourmet pie, makes budweiser products crap compared to their micro brewed and imported counterparts.
Of course this is all opinion, as I have stated, but generally people who have a passion for beer consider the mainstream beers to be quite inferior to craft brewed beers, much the same as a food critic would consider a chain italian restaurant to be inferior to a locally owned and operated mom and pop joint. Hey, I'll eat at a chain mexican restaurant from time to time myself, but it doesn't hold a candle to the one down the street that is owned and operated by people who were born in Mexico. There is absolutely NO comparison 95% of the time.
They're cheaper and they give the beer qualities that the brewer might desire. Just because corn or rice is cheaper than barley doesn't mean it's "crap", which is what some people are suggesting.
No one is suggesting they are "crap" (well actually in my opinion they are), but when it comes down to it they are there to lower the cost of the product, not to make it taste better. Some people might actually like it, but I have a feeling that for most people it has more to do with other factors (cost) than it does taste preference.
Reverse snobbery, how so? I'm not the one saying other beer is crap.
You are insinuating that anyone who prefers a beer other than a mainstream brew is a "beer snob".
I don't think Budweiser taste bad at all.
It doesn't taste BAD, it just doesn't taste particularly GOOD.
The bread example I gave is fitting since beer is essentially liquid bread. Do you prefer Wonder bread, or if you had a choice would you eat a handmade sourdough, wheat, Cuban, French, or Indian bread? I can tell you that although my mom and my sister would prefer the Wonder bread, i can't even fathom how someone would prefer a food with virtually NO taste versus something with character. And that's what I see American beer as- it is beer devoid of character.
Vodka has no taste, and is typically inexpensive to brew. Does that mean it's cheap crap?
That is a common misconception.
The best vodkas are not necessarily "flavorless", but they are pleasant on the palate. I drink vodkas FOR the flavor and drinkability. Like I said, my preferences have nothing to do with cost; matter of fact my vodkas of choice fall in the middle of the price spectrum.
